Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 288 There are few bureaucrats and fools in Chang'an

In Fang Chongyong's impression, Li Linfu liked to work with the party and oppose differences, and he had many mediocre people under his command. Therefore, Fang Chongyong actually had a contemptuous attitude toward the so-called "talents" recommended by Li Linfu.

It's just Li Linfu who talks sweetly and has a sword!

That's what he originally thought.

Fang Chongyong even thought about offering a "reward" to select outstanding talents in the Tang bureaucracy system. Regardless of whether it is self-recommendation or recommendation, once you are hired, you will receive generous rewards immediately.

Of course, before that, we still need to see the quality of the people recommended by Li Linfu and then make a judgment.

The next day, in a private room on the second floor of Xinghua Building, Fang Chongyong met a middle-aged man and two young people, both of whom were recommended by Li Linfu for "interview".

However, the person who brought them here was not Li Linfu himself, but Li Xiu, the eldest son of the right prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.

According to Li Xiu, he was a general supervisor appointed by the imperial court. He was assigned by his father Li Linfu to be responsible for the archiving and improvement of Jiaozi engraving-related technologies!

It was not that Fang Chongyong had not considered that Li Linfu would send his cronies or heirs to participate in the issuance of Jiaozi. But the direct control of printing technology still surprised him.

A person who can become the Right Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty is definitely not a fool!

Fang Chongyong felt relieved after thinking about it.

Compared with copper coins, the threshold for imitation of Jiaozi lies not in material limitations, but in papermaking and printing.

As long as you control the technology of printing Jiaozi and the production method of special paper, you will have passed the biggest threshold for issuing Jiaozi.

It can be said that it controls the core technology!

"I am the Grand Governor Yang Shenjin."

"I am Liu Yan, a member of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and Foreign Affairs."

"I am the member of the next household department, Wailang Wiqi."

The three of them saluted Fang Chongyong respectively.

"I am Fang Chongyong, the envoy of Hexi Province and also the ambassador of economic strategy to the Western Regions. I am honored to meet you."

Fang Chongyong returned the courtesy to the three people in front of him.

Yang Shenjin knew that he was a close confidant of Brother Ji, who was specifically in charge of Brother Ji's small treasury.

The remaining two, one from the Ministry of Personnel and the other from the Ministry of Household Affairs, are probably in charge of personnel and government affairs. It has to be said that Li Linfu is indeed a prime minister who is dedicated to his work. This is clearly a posture of establishing a new department.

"Fang Jieshuai, these are oranges sent from my hometown. They are worthless souvenirs."

Liu Yan took out a bag of oranges from behind and handed it directly to Fang Chongyong's hand with a smile.

"Okay, okay, Mr. Liu, you're welcome, you're welcome."

Fang Chongyong took the orange with a smile and weighed it in his hands calmly.

It seems to be the same amount as an ordinary orange! You won’t really send oranges, right?

Fang Chongyong murmured in his heart, with a professional smile on his face.

"Back then, Fang Jieshuai proposed to Zheng Shuqing that he set up a checkpoint in Kuimen to collect taxes. All civil and military officials in the court wrote against it. Only Liu Yuanwai wrote in favor, and he was demoted as a county magistrate."

Li Xiu said calmly in Fang Chongyong's ear.

Looking at the flattering smile on Liu Yan's face, Fang Chongyong understood that today is different from the past. Now he is a big bureaucrat who will inevitably be fawned over by others.

No wonder so many people like to be a dog for Brother Ji.

Fang Chongyong nodded with emotion.

Li Xiu pointed at Wu Qi again and said: "When Wei Jian served as the transfer envoy, he was a general under Wei Jian. Later, Wei Jian was implicated because of Li Heng's rebellion, and Wu Qi worked under my father."

Fang Chongyong nodded again. Wei Jian was not directly related to Li Linfu like in the history books of his previous life. The two of them were still cousins. Therefore, it is normal for Li Linfu to gather Wei Jian's old troops for his own use.

"Mr. Yang doesn't need an introduction."

Li Xiu said with a smile.

The relationship between Yang Shenjin and Li Linfu is very subtle, but he is a person whom Brother Ji trusts and who was sent by Brother Ji to check and balance Li Linfu. He really does not need Li Xiu's introduction.

Fang Chongyong immediately understood that all this was arranged by Brother Ji and was also under his surveillance.

After retreating from the Xinghualou clerk and the four servants in front of him, Fang Chongyong put his hands in his sleeves and asked slowly: "Everyone, if you have any questions to ask, please feel free to ask without restraint."

"Shuai Fang, I have something unclear.

Our Tang Dynasty has a vast territory, how to distribute this Jiaozi?

If they are all issued in Chang'an, then Jiaozi will inevitably only be circulated around Chang'an. "

Wu Qi, who had worked in government affairs under the transfer envoy, asked a very crucial question.

"Jiaozi can only print in Chang'an. For safety reasons, printing and engraving must not leave Chang'an.

After printing is completed, it will be transported to a large city at the prefectural level and a dedicated warehouse will be established to store Jiaozi.

With the prefecture as the center, it spread to surrounding states. In the capital of each state, a Jiaozi Bank is opened. "

Fang Chongyong said lightly that this kind of problem was probably just a "little test". Wu Qi, as a veteran who had been a bureaucrat for many years, could not say that he did not even know how to solve such a problem.

This is Wu Qi testing him.

Fang Chongyong doesn't mind this kind of thing. Anyway, the three people in front of him don't work under him, so who cares!

"Fang Jieshuai really has a comprehensive plan.

However, the official wants to know, in addition to circulating around the big city at the prefectural level, can this Jiaozi also circulate across regions?

For example, if Jiaozi is issued to Lianghuai and is brought to Chang'an, can it be used without any problem? "

Wu Qi looked at Fang Chongyong with sharp eyes and asked a question that was difficult to answer.

The Tang Dynasty covered more than ten thousand miles, stretching from Congling in the west to Guangzhou in the south. It is understandable that Jiaozi is printed in Chang'an. After all, if the same Jiaozi is printed elsewhere, it will easily cause the outflow of Jiaozi printing technology!

If "genuine and counterfeit coins" appear, the fun will be great!

However, Jiaozi has always been circulated in local areas. Whether the Jiaozi circulating in various regions can be interchanged, or whether there is only one version of Jiaozi circulating in the Tang Dynasty, is not only very important, but also related to The success or failure of Jiaozi operation!

Circulation is divided into regions and cannot be exchanged across regions. This certainly strictly limits the promotion of Jiaozi.

But at the same time, it also adds an extra "firewall". If something goes wrong in the future, if Jiaozi fails, it will only be in one place!

The security is much higher than the unified currency circulating nationwide.

If the issuance of Jiaozi is not partitioned, then once there is a problem in one link, other parts of the Jiaozi that are running normally will also be dragged down by the problem!

Then the fun will be great! It can even be said that you can’t eat and walk around!

“It can be done in two steps.

The first step was to divide the Tang Dynasty into six regions: Guanzhong, Henan, Lianghuai, Jiangnan, Lingnan, and Shu. Each district issues different versions of Jiaozi. If you want to exchange different Jiaozi between regions, you can only exchange it at the prefecture-level Jiaozi bank.

After Jiaozi has been operating in an orderly manner for a few years, the old version will be recycled and a new version will be issued nationwide, once and for all. "

Fang Chongyong gave an intermediate step, which is to start trial operation for a few years before talking about it.

What he said was not very detailed, but it involved many concepts.

There are concepts such as exchange rates, regional currencies, and economic regionalization. Except for Li Xiu who didn't know much about it, the other three people present were "professionals" who dealt with money all day long. After hearing what Fang Chongyong said, they all lowered their heads and thought quietly, weighing the pros and cons in their hearts.

If Fang Chongyong still lived in his previous life and did not have so many years of life experience in the Tang Dynasty, then he would definitely think that it is a very normal thing for a country to have one banknote.

However, in an era when technology has not advanced by leaps and bounds, regional currencies have a natural "firewall" function. This is actually the normal state of currency operation.

Even in modern times, unified currencies in different regions can easily go wrong.

For example, in the European Union, some countries, such as Greece and some countries in Eastern Europe, lost their currency rights after abandoning their own currencies and switching to the euro, and were unable to alleviate their own country's economic crisis through inflation.

This also allows economically developed areas to plunder wealth from economically backward areas through currency!

Fang Chongyong has seen many similar cases.

The Tang Dynasty was such a big game, and regional economic development itself was extremely unbalanced.

If the same Jiaozi is used as currency from south to north and east to west, it will eventually evolve into a very terrible thing!

As expected, Yang Shenjin nodded and said: "Fang Jieshuai's method is indeed very sound. It is better to let Jiaozi operate locally and not communicate with each other first."

The other two also nodded slightly in agreement. The ancients just didn't know enough, and they were no stupider than modern people.

Hearing this, Fang Chongyong couldn't help but feel relieved.

"Fang Jieshuai, how do you determine the currency value of Jiaozi? It says ten pieces of silk, but it may not be exchangeable for ten pieces of silk."

Liu Yan asked with a slight frown.

“For every piece of silk collected from the people, a piece of Jiaozi will be issued. This is a reserve fund system.

It is only necessary to use Jiaozi instead of silk when buying, and at the same time collect a large amount of silk from wealthy families and merchants as reserves. In the future, officials would be given Jiaozi for their salaries, and the imperial court would also pay Jiaozi for building roads and bridges, and Jiaozi could be freely exchanged for silk at banks.

It is not difficult to implement this method nationwide. "

Fang Chongyong said with confidence.

Seeing that everyone was still not convinced, he added:

"Each Jiaozi has an issuance date, and it can only be exchanged for silk one month or even a few months after issuance at the earliest. In this way, Jiaozi banks all over the country can cope with it.

Besides, silk is not popular among the people. Now that people are not afraid of wear and tear, isn’t it easy to promote it? "

"Yes, the Jiaozi invented by Fang Jieshuai is indeed very powerful."

Liu Yan, who had a round face and a smile, couldn't help but give a thumbs up.

"But, as long as Jiaozi is circulated smoothly in the future, some people will definitely be jealous. How to prevent others from counterfeiting is the first priority."

Wu Qi interjected and said that he was an upright man and had offended many people on weekdays. If he wasn't very talented, he would have died countless times.

Everyone present knew that Jiaozi's flaw lay in the "counterfeit banknotes".

As long as papermaking technology and printing technology are broken through, printing counterfeit banknotes will basically be a costless business, which is much more enjoyable than taking over a mountain and robbing it!

Wu Qi’s question is a hit to the nail on the head!

"It's like this. When I designed Jiaozi, I had a total of five layers of anti-counterfeiting."

Fang Chongyong explained how the Jiaozi issued in Hexi Province was protected from counterfeiting, from paper to ink to imprinting and other technologies, without any reservations.

Of course, he just gave a general idea. Anyway, even if he didn't say it, you can still get the clues by comparing a few Jiaozi issued in Hexi.

It's better to be more relaxed, there's no point in hiding it.

Even if Fang Chongyong gave a general outline, the specific details of banknote anti-counterfeiting technology were still unable to be truly understood by the few people in front of him. From another perspective, keeping the technical details of anti-counterfeiting secret is a form of economic protection.

After all, the technical bureaucrats in front of him would not inform Fang Chongyong about the technical details of Chang'an Jiaozi.

If you don't say it, and I won't say it either, it means we are even.

This is equivalent to "mutual confidentiality".

When making political deals with Li Linfu yesterday, Fang Chongyong had already figured out the bottom line of the Right Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty.

Can't Li Linfu take back the coinage rights in Hexi?

No, it would be easy for Li Linfu to disrupt Huang Fang Chongyong's big plan. It's just that it harms others and does not benefit oneself.

Power and responsibility are two sides of the coin. Giving up the right to mint money in Hexi means that Datang will not be dragged down by the economic black hole in the northwest.

As long as Hexi Jiaozi dies, Chang'an can immediately stop the exchange between Chang'an Jiaozi and Hexi Jiaozi!

In other words, no matter what Hexi Jiaozi does, Chang'an can control risks at any time.

Cutting off the exchange will be done once and for all.

Let Fang Chongyong hold the issuance rights of Hexi Jiaozi, which can not only gain the support of Hexi military leaders, but also prevent the financial risks in Hexi from spilling over to Chang'an.

With such a good deal, what reason is there not to do it?

Li Linfu thought very clearly. In his guess, Fang Chongyong would definitely take advantage of the opportunity of the expedition to the Western Regions to print Jiaozi like crazy and plunder the goods from the Western Regions!

So what will the Western Region Economic Ambassador do after getting the goods?

The answer is to use it to reward the border troops, purchase military rations, explore the Western Regions, defend against Tibet, etc. A lot of things require money.

If the notes from both sides can be exchanged for each other, then Fang Chongyong will print money like crazy, and then secretly send people to circulate these notes in Chang'an, and then purchase military supplies in Chang'an. Li Linfu will not be able to stop these "deviant people"!

How could someone who could be the Right Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty be a fool!

Seeing Yang Shenjin, Liu Yan, Wuqi and others in high spirits in front of him, discussing the details of the issuance of Jiaozi while drinking, Fang Chongyong felt filled with emotion.

Fortunately, I didn't think of the people in front of me as fools. There are really many talented people working for the right minister.

Fang Chongyong just heard Liu Yan saying that he would issue a small-denomination "Copper Coin Jiaozi" in sync with the "Silk Jiaozi". He immediately felt that this person was really a financial savvy and should not be underestimated!

Fang Chongyong had been planning this move. After returning to Hexi, he planned to get a batch of Jiaozi in three denominations: "Ten Wen", "Fifty Wen" and "Hundred Wen" as a supplement to the "Silk Jiaozi" .

Unexpectedly, someone could draw inferences from one example. Before he even brought it up, someone was already considering releasing it simultaneously in Chang'an.

The center of the Tang Dynasty, from Brother Ji to the Right Prime Minister Li Linfu, to the bureaucrats at all levels.

If you want to say that they are so bad that they ooze pus, that is indeed more appropriate. But there are not many fools among these people who can fool around!

The meal was very enjoyable. Fang Chongyong almost taught him everything he had learned about currency in his previous life, telling him everything he could without missing a beat.

Especially the principle of inflation, he explained it clearly to Yang Shenjin and others.

However, these people seemed to understand, but they looked disapproving, and did not think inflation was a problem at all.

Instead, Liu Yan asked Fang Chongyong a question that he could not answer for the time being:

The silk of the Tang Dynasty originally existed as currency, and most of the people who held it would not use it if they could. Now that Jiaozi has replaced silk in circulation, the price of silk will inevitably plummet!

Because silk has degenerated from physical currency to general daily necessities, and the quantity is still so large!

What to do with these silks?

Silk silk plummeted, which actually meant that Jiaozi plummeted! The two are one and the same!

After finishing the wine, it was already the time when the lanterns came on. Fang Chongyong took his guard A Duan and staggered towards Yongjiafang, where he lived. What was always on his mind was the question Liu Yan asked inadvertently.

Fang Chongyong fooled around at that time, but did not think of a suitable solution. If this problem is not solved, the "stock crisis" of silk fabrics will inevitably break out, which will cause the natural value of Jiaozi to plummet! It will not be until these excess silks on the market are digested to normal levels that the currency value of Jiaozi will slowly return to a reasonable state.

After drinking, Fang Chongyong was in a daze, thinking and walking. Suddenly, a few meters away from him, a man in coarse cloth ran wildly, covered the mouth and nose of the man in brocade robes in front of him, and stabbed him several times in the abdomen!

Then he dropped the knife and ran away!

Fang Chongyong suddenly woke up from the fright. He pointed at the escaping thief and said to Aduan: "Hurry up and chase him, don't shoot arrows!"

(End of this chapter)